Heating systems for homes and other buildings are well known. One such prior art system is disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2010/0319795, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Hot water heating systems are among one of the oldest types of heating systems. Many buildings that include hot water heating systems are over one hundred years old. The piping in the wall(s) and/or floor(s) that transports the heated water to heat the building is generally a permanent part of the building structure.
The boiler or heating equipment that provides the heat to the water is typically replaceable and has changed significantly since the time the piping system was installed in these old buildings. Most buildings have seen a number of boiler replacements. These replacement boilers come with any number of warnings and manufacture recommendations as to how each boiler is to be installed and with what components. Despite these warnings and recommendations, it is rare to find a replacement boiler unit with all the necessary parts installed correctly in one of these old heating systems.
During the early years of hot water heating systems, over 150 years ago, technologies were new and materials were less costly. Prior art heating systems included large cast iron radiators throughout the building, as well as large cast iron boilers that heated the water for these systems.
Early on, the properties of physics controlled the design of the large cast iron hot water boilers, as the design depended on the heat to rise though the piping by gravity to get to the radiators on the floor(s) above. The design of the piping and sizing of the radiators in a gravity hot water system is much different than how system piping is designed and boilers are manufactured in modern times.
World War II was significant to the evolution of the modern hot water boiler. During this time, materials, such as steel and iron, were rationed and in limited supply because they were needed for the war effort. Manufactures needed to redesign boilers to use less material, such as steel and cast iron, and still provide an effective amount of heat for buildings. In addition, manpower was limited as well, as many of the young men trained in this industry were off to war. Before this time, boilers were shipped to buildings in pieces, large sections of cast iron were transported through doorways by manpower and into basements and boiler rooms, and then assembled into massive boilers made from a significant amount of cast iron.
With the limiting of raw materials, the size of boilers became smaller. Circulator pumps began to be common on the hot water piping on the supply side of the boiler instead of relying on gravity. It was a time of trial and error for the industry; the pump seals did not last long with the high temperature of the water leaving the boiler. Metals and manpower continued to be in limited supply. In addition, there was increased demand for more product due to the aging systems that came due for replacement and the housing boom after the war.
Soon, the industry began to make the prepackaged boilers, completely assembled, small enough to fit through doorways, and light enough to be transported as a complete unit. All controls were factory installed. The circulator pumps were moved to the wrong side, intentionally, to return piping side of the boiler to keep away from the hottest water. Systems were required to be pressurized to keep temperatures lower, and now only a few moderately trained workers were needed to install a replacement boiler.
Presently, when many years of boiler replacements have been completed since the 1940's, and those generations of engineers, system designers, and installers have long since gone from the industry. For years, boiler replacements have been done by installers who have been looking at the examples of what they find in these buildings. New generations of installers have been trained over and over by these examples: circulators in the wrong locations, water fill into a wrong section of piping, expansion tanks improperly placed on piping, no way to get air out of piping, and/or no way to add cleaner and additives to the water. These are just a few of the problems with most prior art hot water system found in buildings.
The problems still continue today, as prior art replacement boilers are installed much the way the installers find them. It was only a few years ago, after the new technologies of high efficient heating started to become more prevalent, that manufactures announced that it was wrong to put the circulator pump on the return piping side of the boiler (the way it had been done for 50 years), but instead should be installed on the hot supply side of the boiler. Now, circulators are not part of the prepackaged boiler, or they come unattached with instructions of preferred placement on the supply water piping.
Every boiler replacement has, at least in part, its own unique circumstance to connect to the system components, such as the piping and radiators, which are permanently installed in buildings. All boilers manufactured and sold in the U.S. must meet government set guidelines for a certain level of energy efficiency. Unfortunately, these new efficiencies are not being maintained at the installation level. In many circumstances, the life of the heating appliance is jeopardized by incorrect installation. In the end, it is the building and homeowners that ultimately loose—they have heat when a replacement boiler is installed, but they are not seeing the benefits of energy savings they could have, their maintenance costs are higher, and the life of the replacement boiler has been shortened.
Prior art boiler replacement involves lining up the connections of the new boiler with the connection points of the building and putting the piping together. In the prior art, components, such as circulators and valves, as well as many other recommended components, were fitted into these sections of piping anywhere they would fit. No installation was the same; one could only guess if all of the flow requirements that dictate heating capacity were met, and when the time comes to replace the boiler again all the piping and components would be removed with the old boiler and the same thing would be done again (i.e., lining up the different connection points of the building's piping and the connections of the boiler and connect them together).